norman



ET AL 2,704,537

2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS Edward A [Vrman J2:

ATTORNEY Char-2e: A? Piezfc/zeidzr/er arch 22, 1955 E. A. NORMAN, JR.,ET AL 2,704,537

GAS-FIRED AIR HEATER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 20 1951 ATTORNEYUnited States Patent GAS-FIRED AIR HEATER Edward A. Norman, Jr., andCharles A. Reichelderfer,

Columbus, Ohio, assignors to Norman Products Company, Columbus, Ohio, acorporation of Ohio Application April 20, 1951, Serial No. 222,082

3 Claims. (Cl. 126-90) This invention relates to gas-fired room heaters,particularly heaters of the type adapted to be placed in close proximityto vertical building walls, in order that they will utilize but aminimum of useful fioor space.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improvedmechanically simplified yet eflicient room heater in which thermalcirculation of air to be heated takes place mainly by convection overwall surfaces heated by the operation of casing-enclosed fuel burners,whereby to enable a room to be heated primarily by convected aircurrents rather than by the radiant heat effects of prior room heaters.

It is another object of the invention to provide a gasfired room heaterof the safety convection type which includes a casing divided internallyto form spaced room air-circulating and burner chambers, theair-circulating chamber receiving air from the room of a building inwhich the heater is mounted from a position adjacent to the floor line,whereby as the air is heated by contact with heated walls of the casing,the same arises in the air-circulating chamber and is vented to the roomatmosphere through the open top of the air-circulating chamber of thecasing.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a room heater of thecharacter set forth wherein fuel combustion takes place in an enclosedburner chamber, the gaseous products of combustion arising through theburner cham her and contacting heat-transmitting walls thereof in amanner raising the temperature of said Walls sutficiently to heat roomair contacting the walls on surfaces opposed to those defining theburner chamber.

Another object is to provide a heater wherein the products of combustiondischarged from the upper part of the burner chamber of the casing arecaused to travel through a plurality of heat-exchanging tubes arrangedadjacent to the room outlet of an associated air-heating chamber,whereby to elfect improved heat interchange between the heat developedby the operation of the fuel burners in the burner chamber with the roomair passing through the adjacent air-heating chamber.

A further object of the invention is to provide a room heater of thisnature in which an improved casing structure is provided embodyingvertically and substantially parallel fuel combustion and air-heatingchambers, the combustion chamber being arranged in the casing toward thefront thereof with the air-heating chamber toward the rear and inheat-exchanging relationship therewith, and wherein the front of thecasing is provided with a radiant heat shield disposed in parallel butspaced relationship to the front Wall of the casing defining the frontof the burner chamber, whereby to produce a restricted air circulatingspace between the shield and the front wall of the casing for thethermal circulation of room air, the shield further serving to increasethe ability of the heater to heat the atmosphere of an associated roomor rooms through the use of convected rather than radiant heat.

It is another object of the invention to provide a structurally simpleroom-type heater which will operate efficiently through thermal anddraft-induced passage of air and gases, without employing necessarilythe use of relatively expensive and complex motor-driven air-displacingmeans.

With these and other objects and advantages in view, which will appearas the description proceeds, the invention consists in the novelfeatures of construction, combinations of elements and arrangements ofparts, all hereinafter more fully described and pointed out in theappended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view partly in front elevation and partly in verticalsection of a wall heater formed in accordance with the presentinvention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken tlglo ughltheheater on the plane indicated by the line 22 0 1g.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken through the upper portion ofthe heater on the plane disclosed by the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of my improved heater, with parts thereofbroken away and disclosed in section to set forth interior apparatus.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the numeral 1 designatesthe casing of the improved wall heater, comprising the presentinvention, in its entirety. In this instance, the casing is formed toinclude a box-like structure, involving a vertical front wall 2, a backwall 3 arranged in spaced parallelism with the front wall 2, verticalside walls 4, and a top wall 5. Positioned between the front and backwalls 2 and 3 is a divisional wall 6, which together with walls 12separates the interior of the casing into vertical fuel-combustion andair-heating chambers 7 and 8, respectively.

The bottom of the chamber 7 is preferably closed to the atmosphere ofthe room in which the heater is positioned, as by means of a bottom wall9. The air-heating chamber, however, is open at the bottom or sidesthereof to the room atmosphere. In attaining this result, use is made ofvertical corner legs 10 which are carried by the outer casing and dependtherefrom for engagement with the floor, or other base, indicated at 11,the legs 10 serving to support the lower part of the outer casing abovethe floor level and to provide means for the ready entrance of currentsof air drawn from the room atmosphere into the bottom of the air-heatingchamber and thence upwardly through the latter. The room air sweeps overthe heated surfaces provided by the back of the burner chamber, asformed by the divisional wall 6, and, also, the vertical side walls 12of the burner chamber, the latter being disposed in spaced relation fromthe side walls 4 of the outer casing to produce air-heating ducts.

Arranged within the bottom of the chamber 7 are the fuel gas operatedburner members 13. In this instance, a pair of such members has beendisclosed arranged side by side in parallel relationship and supportedin any suitable stationary manner within the bottom of the burnerchamber. The members 13 include mixing heads 14 into which valvedhydrocarbon gas lines extend, in a manner customary to gas burners ofthis kind. The air used for fuel combustion purposes, however, ispreferably drawn from the exterior atmosphere of the building in whichthe heater is disposed.

Thus, as shown in Fig. 2, air drawn from the outer atmosphere of abuilding passes by way of a conduit 16 and is delivered under draft flowto the bottom of the burner or combustion chamber, where the air may beused in part to produce a combustible gas mixture in the burner members13. This mixture, upon issuing from the orifices or ports of the burnermembers, is burned to produce flame combustion. Such combustion,however, is confined to the combustion chamber. The resultant heatedgaseous products sweep upwardly through the combustion chamber,contacting all its walls, which are preferably of thin sheet metal inorder to transmit heat readily, whereby to enable such heat to beimparted to room air moving over the exterior surfaces of the combustionchamber walls.

To utilize as completely as possible the heat present in the combustiongases, the upper portion of the airheating chamber 8 is deflectedangularly forwardly, by angularly bending the upper part of thedivisional wall 6 as at 17, and by utilizing a relatively short andrearwardly disposed second divisional wall 18 in the upper part of thecasing. Connecting the walls 17 and 18 are a plurality ofheat-exchanging tubes 19, which unite the chamber 7 with a flue chamber20 formed in the upper rear portion of the casing at the back of thedivisional wall 18. As the heated combustion gases travel through thetubes 19, the walls of said tubes are heated, so that the air movingupwardly through the forwardly directed outlet neck of the air-heatingchamber will be additionally heated by contact with the outer surfacesof said tubes. After such contact, the heated air issues from the topwall 5 of the chamber through one or more openings 21 formed therein fordirect re-introduction into the atmosphere of the room containing theheater.

The fiue chamber 20 carries a pipe or conduit 22 which leads to achimney, outlet stack or other atmospheric vent. Also, the flue chambermay be in communication with a second pipe or conduit 23 arranged belowthe first pipe or conduit 22 which serves to provide down draft reliefin the event back pressures within the chimney or stack joined with thepipe 22 become excessive.

A batfie 23a is positioned in the flue chamber between the dischargeends of the tubes 19 and the pipe or conduit 22. The baflle extends, asshown in Fig. 3, part way of the length of the flue chamber, and servesto prevent channeling of the fiue gases discharged from the tubesdirectly into the flue outlet 22. The arrangement serves to cause theflue gases to circulate uniformly into contact with the wall surfaces ofthe flue chamber before finding vent to the atmosphere.

To further insure heating by air circulation and conveetion, there isprovided at the front of the casing 1 a heat shield or panel 24, thelatter being mounted in connection with the front wall 2 by studs ortheir equivalents, indicated at 25. The panel 24 is spaced from the wall2 to form a restricted air-circulating space 26 of comparatively narrowwidth which is open along its upper, side and lower edges, providing forthe circulation of room air through the space in the manner indicated inFig. 2 of the drawings. One or more openings 27 may be provided in thewalls defining the lower portion of the burner chamber 7 for the purposeof igniting combustible fuels issuing from the orifices of the burnermembers 1.3, which openings may be suitably closed after combustion hasbeen initiated.

In view of the foregoing, it will be seen that the present inventionprovides an efficient, economical, gas-fired heater for use in theheating of dwelling and other room areas. The device is characterized bythe effective utilization of heat developed through fuel combustiontherein and the uniform heating of the atmosphere of a room in which theheater is disposed. Particularly, the construction makes etficient useof the principle of thermal circulation of heated air, and provides forsuch circulation in a free, unobstructed and efficient manner. Theheater is further characterized by its safety in operation, the absenceof an open flame in the building room and also by the fact that thegaseous products of combustion are at all times confined within theheater while being advanced to an atmospheric vent, after having givenup the greater portion of their heat indirectly to room air undergoingcirculation through the heater.

While the preferred form of the invention has been set forth inconsiderable detail, nevertheless it will be understood that theconstruction is subject to certain variations or modifications withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope thereof as set forth in thefollowing claims.

We claim:

1. A room heater comprising: an outer casing having vertical front, sideand back walls and a substantially horizontal top wall; an innerdivisional wall structure including a pair of laterally spaced,vertically disposed, divisional walls arranged within said casing andextending between and united with the front and back walls of the casingin inwardly spaced parallel relation with respect to said side walls,said divisional wall structure further including a laterally andvertically extending partitional wall arranged substantially midwaybetween said front and back walls within said casing and extending fromthe top to the bottom thereof, said partitional wall being united withsaid divisional walls to form the back of a combustion chamber, thefront wall of said casing forming the front wall of said chamber, burnermeans disposed in the bottom of said combustion chamber, the upper partof said partitional wall being inclined toward the front wall of theouter casing so that the upper edge thereof terminates adjacent to thejunction of the front and top walls; a second partitional wallpositioned in the upper and rear part of said outer casing insubstantially parallel and spaced relationship from the inclined upperportion of the first partitional wall, said first and second partitionalwalls forming in connection with the back and side walls of said casingan air-heating chamber; said second partitional wall and the back andtop walls of said outer casing forming a flue chamber, the inclinationof the first and second-named partitional walls serving to direct theupper region of said air-heating chamber angularly upwardly andforwardly of the casing in front of said flue chamber; a plurality ofrelatively short open-ended heatexehanging tubes positioned inregistering openings formed in said first and second-named partitionalwalls and extending perpendicularly thereto, said tubes acting asheat-exchanging devices with their outer surfaces arranged across saidair-heating chamber for intercepting contact with air travelingtherethrough, whereby to remove heat from products of combustionemanating from said burner means prior to their delivery to said fluechamber; means for delivering air for combustion purposes to said burnermeans; separate means for supplying air to be heated to said air-heatingchamber; outlet means formed in the top wall of said casing for thedischarge of heated air from the upper end of said air-heating chamber;and outlet means for the escape of spent burner gases from said fluechamber.

2. A room heater as defined in claim 1, and wherein said flue chamber isprovided with a vertically and laterally disposed baffle arranged todeflect burner gases entering said flue chamber from certain of saidheatexchanging tubes laterally of the flue chamber and away from theoutlet means thereof.

3. A gas-fired room heater as specified in claim 1 and furthercharacterized by the provision of an imperforate heat shield carried bythe front wall of the heater casing in spaced relation thereto, saidshield serving in conjunction with said front wall to provide a passageof restricted cross-sectional area for the upward travel of air to beheated over the heated front wall of the casing, said restricted passageterminating adjacent to the heated air outlet openings in the top wallof the casing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,701,203 Fry Feb. 5, 1929 1,931,903 Payne Oct. 24, 1933 2,192,920 LinehMar. 12, 1940 2,353,244 Kester July 11, 1944 2,631,580 Beck Mar. 17,1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 27,380 Great Britain of 1906

